This is really not a post, but a comment to Lingamish’s post on the end of the world.
I’m very aware that I have entered the world of blogging as one coming in from the technological Stone Age. However, thanks to Lingamish, I’m using (in the most basic sense of the world) Windows Live Writer to write my posts, I now know how to single space hard return (I still think it’s ridiculous that you have to do something EXTRA to make that happen, when I believe it should be the default) AND I’ve learned that it’s better to reply to someone else’s post with a post on your own blog than it is to comment on the original blog. I don’t usually remember that until after I’ve hit submit.
However, TODAY, I read Lingalinga’s post “The Truth to Summer’s Lie”, and learned that, for many reasons, including my own anonymity, the end of the world is already here. Did I panic? No. God, in His Providence, had already prepared me to process such news calmly, through a poem I had just read. Unlike the poems Lingamish often quotes , this was one I could easily understand (once again reminding me how nice it is that someone as smart as Lingamish still counts me, who doesn’t always understand him, among his friends).
So, at first I was happy because I had a context to share the poem I liked so much.
And then I was even happier because I caught myself BEFORE I posted it as a comment on Lingalinga, and remembered to put my wordy comment as a post on my own blog.
What a good way to start the day: The world is ending, but it’s okay. And, I’m moving in the right direction of blogging etiquette and intelligence!
Here’s the poem:
Why
argue
and fight,
and worry
how the world ends?
Pray for the best,
prepare for the worst,
and take whatever God sends.
(From Sitting By My Laughing Fire, by Ruth Bell Graham, p. 109)
Thanks, Lingamish and Lingalinga. You, in both of your Internet forms as well as in direct correspondence, have not only been helpful, but also very patient with me in this learning process.
I’ve learned that it’s better to reply to someone else’s post with a post on your own blog than it is to comment on the original blog.
Oh, I didn’t know that and I think there are often times when it is better to place the comment on the original blog’s post. If you post your comment on your own blog, some people have their feelings hurt (and we ISFJs don’t like to hurt people’s feelings, do we?!). Why would they get their feelings hurt? Because they might think we are taking the attention they originally deserve for posting their thoughts away from them.
If you do post your comment on your own blog, it is important to Trackback to the original post, and it can also be helpful to place a comment to the original post that you liked their post so much that you are replying on your own blog.
Getting lots of comments on your own blog post can be quite the ego boost, not that ISFJs would care anything about such low things as affirmation!
Well maybe YOU don’t care about affirmation
–Maybe someday I’ll be as spiritual as you!
And thanks for the alternative view on posting vs. commenting. One of the themes of my life is, “There’s always another way of looking at it.” Sometimes that makes me look intuitive, but it’s actually a highly systematic process for me.
Sometimes it’s hard for to make decisions because of it, because I see each side equally well. Sometimes it’s helpful, because I am more aware of how something I do or say might affect another person–I can’t help but see it my way AND theirs at the same time! Sometimes, for the same reason, it’s a curse– it’s hard for to make decisions because of it, since I see each side equally well, plus about 17 other options. (Someone told me I’m not a perfectionist as much as I am thorough, and I think they’re right. I want to weigh everything–all the possible options–before making a decision or doing something. It can be as paralyzing as perfectionism, but it’s different. Recognizing that drive to thoroughness has helped me appreciate its usefulness, but also be able to let it go when it’s counterproductive or too energy draining.)
You reminded me that I should go back to BBB and leave a comment so Bill knows I’ve responded to what he says, just in a different place. I haven’t been able to figure out Trackback, though.
Yes, the affirmation is good. But posting with a trackback actually brings your post to a wider audience (not very much wider in my case since we all read each others blogs) also it helps technorati rank and you know how crazy I am about that. I continue to feel that longer comments are better as posts since they tend to get overlooked. Again, my opinion+two nickels=12 cents.
Lingamish, I always like your .$12!
)
The input from both of you has helped me flesh out my own pros and cons of post vs. comment. Here they are:
1) I’d rather give a long comment as a long post, because I don’t like to think about lots of people reading my wordiness and wondering, “What on earth was she thinking? This doesn’t make any sense. And she’s SO verbose.” If I’m verbose and don’t make much sense on my own post, well, you choose to come there to read me, so it’s not so awful, and if you don’t like the way I write, you don’t ever have to lay eyes on my writing. But, if it’s a comment, there’s a much wider audience reading it and therefore more likely what I say will drive somebody nuts. And I hate that! (Not very confident, am I
2) OK, Lingamish, you’re going to laugh, but I HATE the possibility that people might think I’m trying to up traffic to my blog by linking back to somebody else’s. Even if that’s not why I write a post, I, The Queen of Hating Being Misunderstood, dread the thought of someone wondering, “Did she make this a post and not a comment IN ORDER TO boost traffic?” I’m not oblivious to traffic (although I’m not competitive enough to care about it in comparison to anybody else). But when I’m not writing something to draw traffic, I can’t bear the thought that it might look like that. So, that weighs on the side of responding as a comment.
3) I don’t like the thought that my long comment might make someone coming after me to lose interest in reading through to the end of a thread, so that’s another plus for responding with a post.
4) I know I like it when people comment directly on my post.
Hmmmm, this is why I hate making decisions
The pros and cons all make so much sense to me. I’ll probably respond first as a comment, but if I see it getting really long, I’ll copy that thought into LiveWriter for a future post, but leave a brief comment that I appreciated the post and am thinking more about a response to it. Then if I do write a post in response later, I’ll link back to that post and (if I ever figure it out) trackback.
This is when most of my friends say, “You are way overthinking this, ____!”
(Oops, I almost put my real name in there!)
Lingamish said:
I continue to feel that longer comments are better as posts since they tend to get overlooked.
Yes, that is a good point, David. Long comments (my style since I can become so verbose) take up too much room on the screen for our fast-paced world in which we live, and breathe, and have our being (to sound biblical here!).
Hey, Eclexia, Dave and I have met in person, near his home stomping grounds in the U.S. He’s got beautiful children. But if you know him and his wife, you know that already.
Oh, don’t get me started on how wonderful Lingafamily is–each one of them and the whole group of them! I won’t be able to talk about it without being so touchy feely that Lingamish will probably run away screaming with his hands over his ears (or his eyes, I suppose, since this is written…) They are all smart and funny and talented and kind to the core and some of our family’s favorite memories are times shared with them. But, I’d better stop now, because I’m already starting down the sappy road.